Freshfields Restructuring Helped Boost Profits
London-based law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has recently undergone a cultural shift that emphasizes the bottom line.
Underperforming partners have been let go, and the partnership structure has changed to allow nonequity partners, the American Lawyer reports. More than 100 equity partners left in a two-year period.
The changes produced the desired effect: higher profits per partner of almost $2 million and a “renewed sense of dynamism and teamwork,” the legal magazine reports.
Freshfields is led by an American, chief executive Theodore “Ted” Burke, who says the firm’s first quarter this year was the best ever. He became the first American to lead a Magic Circle law firm in what the magazine describes as a “watershed” 2005 election.
But with the changes came a lawsuit, filed by former partner Peter Bloxham, who said changes to the firm’s pension plan discriminated against him on the basis of age.
